The Lambertville record., 1887-01-05
SlIIcHDaL EPIDEMIC.
How the Craze of SelgeDessrftcttOss ],
Spread Work 81 9aenius.

How she Craze Of selg.Dessrnctsoss Is
Spreaa-~Egork 81 taeniHs.
:. You viii notice, if yo1s look closely at the
matter, that where there are number OF
suicides following each other the first one
sets the fashion and the rest initiate. said
man whose close observation Of the
act of self-destruction attracted the atien-
ton of reporter not long since. The
Frenchman who entered the restaurant,
ordered dinner with the elaborate care OF
practiced gourmet, aud after deyouring
each course with leisnreiy appreciation and,
finishing of with a quiet smoke blew his
brains out, had the true artistic sense per
yerted it is true, but still artistic. It was
a peculiarly French idea, but he was follow
| ed by mob of inlitators. Another French
man, an army officer, having passed through
n life of honor and gallantry, for which he
was advanced to the nobility, found himself
poor aud unable to support himself in his
old age. He adopted the national method
of inhaling charcoal fumes, bnt he rescued
it from the commonplace by leaving the
following rather neat epigram 1t took
| twenty battles to ennoble me Eve sous of
charcoal suffice to Kill me. But the French
have by no means q monopoly of the elab-
orate suicide business. A German who was
popularly considered insane displayed the
utmost ingenuity in devising his method of
suicide. He arranged an apparatus by
which having nailed his feet and one hand
to cross, he would swing himself, cross
and all, out Of the window : his room.
This he did and was cruciaS IN sight Of
the whole town. The city & ( rites inter-
e tsrsd, ed. however s, ,,ss and cut in time
most elaBe,ate effort was that of a
st Louis man few years ago whose pat
riotism led him to die for the glory of bis
city. Chicago had boosted of startling
suicide, and he determined 10 place his city
| in the lead BY something still more elabor-
ate. For this purpose he placed small
gas stove beside his bathtub, with covered
vessel on top, from the cover Of which a
bent pipe passed into the bathtub. Over
the tub he erected small gallows, from
which three cords were suspended, the
middle one being heavier than the others
and terminating in q moose. To the end
OF the right hand cord he attached a razor
and to the other loaded pistol. All being
now in readiness he filed the bathtub aud
the covered vessel over the gas stove with
boiling water, and lighted the stove by
which the water in the covered vessel was
converted into steam, and passing through
the pipe kept the water in the bathtub at
boiling heat He then took dose of
poison, saturated his clothes with alcohol,
adjusted the moose about his neck, ignited
tha alcohol, cut his throat with razor and
shot himself with pistol As the alcohol
burned up the cord by which lie was .hang-
ing, his halSed reniains dropped into the boil
ing water beneath He had succeeded in
killing himself by poison, burning, hang
ing, shooting, cutting his throat drowning
and scalding.
As usual the imitator appeared. The
latter adjusted rope over the branch of n
tree oyerhangins cliff which rose perpen-
dicularly from Il small arm Of the sea.
Having swallowed his poison he adjusted
tsSsir isonse al,al.t hia neck ssasee IS lis.
tol firmly ard leaped ont from the edge OF
the cliff, firing the pistol nj the aame time.
The action Of leaping spoiled his aim SO
that the bullet not only did not hit him.
but cut the rope so.,hat it broke and Drop
ped him into the sater. His fall was brok.
en- by the bushes growing ont from the
face of the cliff, aud by the time he was
picked up by a boat which came to his
rescue he had swallowed enough salt water
TO make him yomit up all the poison.
The inhabitants of cold countries pos
sess q natural means of suicide which We
cannot obtain without great difienlty and
expense allude 10 freezing. OF course
man might build an ice machine and then
reduce his temperature TO freezing point.
but ii would cost him several hundred dol
lars, and when man has that amount of
money he has little desire TO search for
modes Of death. But in the East it is diff
ferent. Why only last winter there was a
man in Minnesota--he was insane, to be
sure. but that's neither here nor there-who
got out Of his bed one night, carefully
ufesseu nilaSelf hhu Ntiticu turouSH iltli
mile Of snow drift to barbed wire fence.
Here he removed every stitch of his cloth
ing and dragged himself through the fence
again and again, until his flesh was torn to
ribbons then he lay down in the snow
and was found in the morning frozen stin.
Possibly he would have died from loss OF
blood, but the freezing certainly finished
him. Another curious instance of similat
means Of death occurred several years ago at
the University Of ST. Petersburg. Two
students there found themselves without
means Of artificial heat one night, and see
ing that both would probably freeze to
death, drew lots to s-e who should give all
bis clothing 10 the O. II and himself freeze
meanwhile writing down from dictaiion the
dying mans sensations The programme
was carried out faithfully, and the dictated
statement is still on record, but the survivor
is now In Siberia.